'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE... (Patreon)

Morning, you lot.

Bong! Tomorrow we hope to see some of you at Chunky Fringe. It’s all much more low-key than a Digi Live, but the weather forecast is looking good, so the carpark will no doubt be employed for socialising! Also: the bar’s open. I’m not driving, so I’m hoping to actually have a drink this time.

Today I’m finishing up our plans for the Bubblegun Live. Even though our episodes are usually completely unstructured and mostly unplanned, we’re not risking that with an audience there, even if it’s a small one. Dan Does is going to be joining us, and you never know who else we might rope in…

I had a nightmare last night that a barber had dyed my eyebrows jet black without me asking, and I was desperate trying to get it off before Chunky Fringe.

Been a funny old week. I broke my brain finishing up a bunch of day job gigs, breathed a sigh of relief that I was done, and then… crashed into a wall with some difficult clients. It has been a lot more work than anticipated (or than I’m being paid for). We’ll record a Writer’s Club where I’ll talk about it a bit more. Been a tad stressful to say the least.

Alongside this, BYAMPOD made a bit of a stir in Marillion circles, with our recent AI experiment being shared by their guitarist, Steve Rothery. As I say in the latest episode, I’ve finally reached a place with AI where I’m firmly on the anti side. What can I say? I’m an oil tanker. Takes me a while to get to places, and, if you tell me not to do something, my inner troll will always want to do it.

Though the potential environmental costs are worryingly high, not to mention what it’s going to do to our freedoms and brains, when it comes to AI being trained on other people’s work, I admit that I am kind of… whatever.

I know that’s probably controversial, but I’ve met too many smug creative people who thought they were somehow better than “normal” people because they were writers or musicians. I get those of us in creative professions fearing for our jobs – heck, I’m one of them – but a lot of the resistance to AI always seemed - to me - to be motivated by those fearing losing their specialness.

I just think we’re all trained on other people’s work; Marillion wouldn’t exist without Genesis, Star Wars wouldn’t exist without Flash Gordon, 2001 and Dune, and Mr Biffo’s Found Footage wouldn’t have been like it was if it wasn’t for Tim and Eric etc. etc.

But… my objection is more about the lack of humanity in AI. I dare say there are artists who could use it in creative ways to produce and say something meaningful, but there’s just too much slop floating around now that it’s smothering the real art. The stuff that DOES matter. If everyone is an “artist”, it’d be like living in a world where everyone has superpowers.

I never thought I’d feel like that, but it’s only in a world like that where those who reject superpowers are going to be able to stand out.

That said, I did scroll through some Sora 2 videos and realised how easy it would be to do a new Mr Biffo’s Found Footage. Unfortunately, the thought of using it now makes me feel a bit queasy. Guess I’ll continue taking the slow road.

See you tomorrow, I hope!

Paul